1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention is directed to a jewelry setting made of a plurality of parts, and more particularly, to a gemstone setting employing a compression-type holding means to facilitate mounting of a gemstone, and is constructed of sheet material allowing ease of assembly and reduced material cost.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known in the jewelry art to make gemstone settings of various designs and constructions. One such setting is a prong-setting which includes a number of metal prongs or legs radiating from a base. After placing a gemstone in the setting, the jeweler bends the ends of the prongs over to hold the gemstone captive without unduly concealing the gemstone""s surface. It is also known how to set gemstones by raising metal walls around a stone to secure it in position, such as in a bead-setting or bezel-setting.
While the settings described above work well for a specific cut of gemstone, a single setting cannot be adapted to accept varying types of gemstone cuts. Once a satisfying design is arrived at, the construction of the setting will have to be modified for each type of gemstone cut. For example, a jewelry setting designed to accommodate a round cut will have to be modified to accept a gemstone of an emerald or marquise cut. Therefore, depending on the manufacturing process, many different dies will have to be produced to accommodate the different holding means of the setting, or where the settings are constructed manually, various cuts of material will have to be readily available. This will result in increased labor and material costs making it undesirable to produce various settings in any large volume.
Even in a setting produced to accept only one kind of gemstone cut, considerable costs are expended in prior art jewelry settings, particularly for high-end settings. These high-end settings usually are constructed with a large quantity of precious metal, such as gold, silver or platinum, resulting in high cost. Also, due to the volume of precious metal, these settings must be cast, molded or worked resulting in many labor hours per setting. Additionally, since there may be variations in stones for one particular size, e.g. 4 mm, each individual setting would necessitate modifications prohibiting mass production of the setting.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved jewelry setting with a gemstone holding means to accommodate various sizes and types of gemstone cuts, e.g. round, oval, emerald, marquise, pear or princess.
It is another object of the subject invention to provide a jewelry setting in which the gemstone can be mounted easily to the setting without requiring modifications to the setting to accommodate variations in a particular stone size.
Another object of the subject invention is to provide a simple and easily constructed jewelry setting, the parts of which may be readily formed and easily assembled to form a substantial structure of attractive appearance.
It is still a further object of the subject invention to provide a jewelry setting which gives the appearance of massive precious metal construction while utilizing relatively inexpensive sheet material.
The above stated objects are met by a new and improved multi-part jewelry setting. The multi-part jewelry setting comprises a gemstone holding means and a housing means for totally encasing a gemstone while affording substantial exposure of the gemstone. The holding means is a generally U-shaped bracket formed with a retaining means near its ends for engaging a peripheral edge of a gemstone. The U-shaped holding bracket is formed to be resilient to accommodate gemstones of various diameters within a particular class of stone size.
The housing means comprises a plurality of U-shaped brackets and is assembled to encase the holding means in the following manner. A second and larger U-shaped top bracket with open sides is soldered within the gemstone holding means in a base-to-base relationship. The upper ends of the second U-shaped top bracket are bent outwardly at an acute angle to form a retaining shelf. The second U-shaped top bracket is then disposed within a third and even larger U-shaped bottom bracket. The bottom bracket will support the gemstone holding means by having its upper ends come into contact with the retaining shelf of the second U-shaped top bracket. The housing means is then enclosed by two, flat U-shaped side walls which are sized to equal the difference in widths between the second U-shaped top bracket and the third U-shaped bottom bracket.
By forming the gemstone holding means with a resilient material, the gemstone holding means will act like a spring and capture the gemstone by a compression fit. In mounting the gemstone, the multi-part jewelry setting will be placed in a holder with its housing coming into contact with the holder to firmly hold the setting and its upper ends pointing in an upward vertical direction to receive the gemstone. The gemstone will then be inserted into the gemstone holding means with the bottom surface of the gemstone directed toward the base of the jewelry setting. As pressure is applied on the top surface of the gemstone in a vertically downward direction, the upper ends of the holding means will begin to flex outward as the gemstone slides into the setting. The gemstone will continue to slide into the setting until the retaining means of the holding means engage a peripheral edge of the gemstone and the upper ends of the holding means snap inward giving a positive indication that the gemstone is set. The flexibility of the holding means allows the multi-part jewelry setting to accommodate gemstones of varying diameters and eliminates the need to custom make a setting for a particular gemstone.
All of the components of the multi-part jewelry setting are of a uniform thickness and therefore can be stamped from a single piece of sheet material. This material can be any metal having resilient characteristics, and preferably will be a precious metal, such as gold, silver or platinum. In large scale production, it can be appreciated that numerous components can be stamped at once with a single piece of material thus avoiding waste and increasing productivity. Once stamped, the individual components can be machined into their proper shape for assembly.
Since the multi-part jewelry setting is formed from sheet material, the completed housing is essentially hollow. This results in an aesthetically pleasing, relatively inexpensive setting since less precious metal is required, even though, it appears to be of significant and massive precious metal construction. Once assembled, the setting can be easily fitted to be used in connection with finger rings, earrings, bracelets and pendants.
These and other features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in connection with the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the drawings are designed for the purpose of illustration only and not as a definition of the limits of the invention.